... NATURE NOTES. WOODCOCK. I allus knowed woodcock time had come when parson reads burning fiery furnace' in church lesson. These were the words of an East-rzuntry farmer who, good Churchman though he was, was a keener sportsman, and fixed thus the date ...

... NATURE NOTES. THE MAGPIE. One is sorrow, two is mirth, Three a weibling, fear a birth, Five for a fiddle, six for a dastoe, Seven for England, eight for Irene& With few variations, chiefly of the last two lines, this rhyme regarding the magpie, or the ...

... NATURE NOTES. That time and tide—which proverbially wait for no man should have come to be commonly associated with one another is only natural, for apart from the movements—real and apparent — of the heavenly bodies other than that upon which we ...

... NATURE NOTES. THE GNU. The gnu is one of the most remarkable-looking species of the antelope family, and few people familiar with the animals in the Zoological Gardens would ever guess that they belonged to that family at all ; and it is little wonder ...

... NATURE NOTES. THE MANDRILL. According to our standards of judgment beauty is not an attribute possessed by any of the baboons, and it happens that—in spite of the general supposition that brilliant colours bestow beautythe baboon, which Nature has painted ...

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... NATURE NOTES. THE CRICKET. Althollgh Dickens greatly popularised this little creature in his book. The Cricket on the Hearth, it was constantly referred to by older writers and poets in connexion with cheerful.; ness and mirth, and the quotation As merry ...

... NATURE NOTES. That the pelican, both by name and appearance, is so generally familiar, is due in some measure, undoubtedly, to the mention made of it in Biblical literature, and to its frequent appearance an heraldic and other designs, illustrating the ...

... NATURE NOTES. .. ,~. . A NIGHT IN THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH. ► The scene of a lonely night I once spent in the bush was in western plains of New South Vv ales, between the Gunningbar Creek and the steep-banked Macquarie River. It will ever be memorable to me ...

... NATURE NOTES. THE TREE-SPARROW. In nearly every schoolboy's collection of birds'-eggs one is sure to see many specimens of those of the house-sparrow,and near to them or in the next compartment some eggs very similar—a little smaller, perhaps, and more ...

... NATURE NOTES. THE BIRDS OF LUNDY. Lunc:‘ Island, seen from the North Devon roast, twenty miles distant, looks like a little cloud lying low on the horizon, and only those who have visited or passed near the island know the rugged grandeur of its granite ...

... NATURE NOTES. PRESERVATION OF SPECIES IN FISH. Tt is cry curious to note how nature assists in an almost autoinatic manner in the preservation of a species by making those creatures that are especially exposed to danger and risk of annihilation, and those ...